


Sworn to the Sword

by Kya_Marie_Albarn97



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-09 13:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20995559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kya_Marie_Albarn97/pseuds/Kya_Marie_Albarn97
Summary: Calira Enges has served the Galra for ten thousand years, now after finally realizing she is on the wrong side of this war she chooses to abandon her post in favor of Voltron. Handing herself over to them willingly, how will the Paladins accept her? Can they trust her at all given that she is a half breed Galra general? She may have made the wrong choice as she must come to terms with the violence and destruction she has caused over the centuries.*AU* Major Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't seen past Season 3.





	1. Chapter 1

1- The Ark of Taujeer

Why was she doing this? It was a suicide mission from the start, not only was she putting her life on the line by turning herself over to the Paladins of Voltron, but she was also betraying her mission. Calira Enges was the highest-ranking general to Prince Lotor, the sole heir to the Galra throne, he had been her assignment for the last ten thousand years and in only five minutes she had managed to betray her Prince as well as the Galra empire. The past several minutes were fresh in her mind as she pushed her speeder to go as fast as it possibly could. Locking onto the last known report of Voltron being on the planet Taujeer.

She had jammed the frequencies aboard Lotor's ship in order to escape unnoticed, taking one of these prized speeders to try and weaken his defenses in the future and opened a small wormhole behind the ship to allow her to escape. She had learned of the master plan that Zarkon was planning, using the powers from the Witch Haggar to destroy Voltron and retrieve the lions. Lotor's plan was much worse, rather than focus on the lions he wanted to wipe the Galra empire out of existence. Although she couldn't fully agree with destroying millions of Galra, she also did not agree with the Galra having their hands on the Voltron Lions. This was the only way that she would be able to find a safer solution and bring peace to the universe.

As Calira came out of the wormhole she was able to see the remains of Taujeer, hundreds of rock pieces from the planet floating around it in orbit, the acidic planet's surface was slowly dissolving the landmasses there. From the basic scans that her ship could manage she saw that there was a Galra fleet orbiting the planet, taking aim at the lions as they fought them back. After taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, Calira pushed the controls forward and went on the attack, needing to show the Paladins that she meant no harm what so ever. As she drew near the Galra ship she opened fire at the ion cannon mounted on the bridge. Lotor's ships had all be outfitted with stronger weapons allowing for easier fights and little resistance from the opposition. With just one hit she was able to disable the cannon, giving the Lions some time. As she circled the ship Calera knew that she only had several days before she'd is locked out of the Galra systems, even though she was a General... well a former general to Prince Lotor she would need to be careful how she used her power for the coming days.

As she circled around again to take aim at another section of the Galra fighter she was hailed by an unknown frequency. With one swipe from her screen, she was able to see the face of the Black Paladin. His face slightly obscured by his black and white helmet, the visor allowing for his eyes to be seen barely through the glass and his mouth being left open. Her own black and orange helmet obscured her face, giving no trace of what race she was, this would play to her strengths since they may not take kindly to the Galra even if she did turn her back to her own kind. Before the Paladin could even begin to speak Calira took advantage of this moment to state her purpose.

"Paladin of the Black Lion of Voltron. My name is Calira, former general of the Galra empire. I have come willingly to offer my services to the Paladins of Voltron. I know of Zarkon's plans and his current location as well. I come in peace, wishing to help." As if to emphasize her statement she turned her ship around to fire at the blasts that were coming from the opposite sides of the Galra fighter.

With that blast, she was able to disable and destroy the secondary guns aboard the ship. As she began circling once more she smirked to her self as the Lions paused in mid-air to see the destruction she caused. All that was left to destroy was the main Ion cannon, but she wanted to have some fun with it before she completely gave her self over to Voltron. Putting the Paladin's hail on hold, giving her security as the feed was masked on the other side, she began to hail the captain of the Galra fleet, allowing her visor to melt away and expose her face to him. Her purple skin and bright yellow eyes unmistakably Galran, giving her full authority over the situation.

As the call went through she was able to see the cowering form of Commander Morvok, the greedy and idiotic Commander of this sector of the Galra Empire. Banished from the main hub for something inane that did not concern her, or Lotor at all.

"Commander Morvok. Stand down now, by order of Calira Second in command of Prince Lotor's command, and first General to his highness."

She could visibly see the pathetic Gara Commander shake and sweat in fear. Her skills were known throughout the entire empire, allowing her to remain part of Lotor's Generals for so long. She _had _to become the best fighter, the best programmer and flier that he had in order to maintain her position of power. Before she could make another threat the communication link was disrupted as the ion cannon was completely severed from the ship. Calira's visor came back on, obscuring her face and the connection with the Paladins was restored, allowing her to hear the conversation going on with them all as she circled the Galra fighter.

"Good to have you back Keith!"

"Good to be back."

The conversation continued on as she took several more shots at the Galra ship, need to ensure that the Paladins were able to take the ship that she assumed housed the people of Taujeer to a safer location. Before she could get a word in to try and help them with the transport ship, she was blinded by a bright flash of light, causing the warning gauges on her ship to sound. As she looked back to her screen she realized that the Paladins had come together to form Voltron. Taking this as her que to retreat she shifted her fighter into a higher orbit and give the paladins a chance to work, but as she was moving up into the orbit she was caught in the tractor beam of a ship. As she fought for control she quickly weighed her options before she looked on the scanners to see that she was being taken in by the Castle of Lions, the main hub that the Lions of Voltron used as their mobile operation center. This was it, within mintues she would need to officially hand herself over to the Paladins of Voltron, to the very beings that the Galra were trying to capture.

Every moment of her training, every moment of her life becoming null and void within mere minutes. From this point on she would never be a pawn of the Galra. She will be free to choose her own path, so as she wished and make her own choices. As Calira felt the ship being placed down in what she could only assume was the docking bay she turned her ship off and sat back in the seat reflecting for just a moment on what the Galra must be thinking right now. That a half breed General to the Prince had betrayed them, that they needed to find her and kill her.

"I'm sorry Father... I am doing what is right." She softly spoke.

As the main hatch opened to her ship she knew it was time to face the truth, to surrender completely to the Paladins. With one final look inside her ship, she quickly climbed out of her ship and fell to the ground with ease. Not needing to prove anything by climbing down the side of her ship. As she stood back up she could see the five Paladins of Voltron still in their battle armor and two unknown Alteans making seven people altogether. As she stood there in her own armour she began to see how she would not be trusted by anyone here, even if she did help them in battle. As she stood there for a moment she considered taking off her helmet but then it would give her self away. She was a half breed and given that there were two Altean people here they might not take kindly to someone who was half Galra.

The Black Paladin from earlier stepped forward to close the gap between them, giving her a better look at his face. His hair was cut short except for the small tuft of white hair that hung in his eyes, the rest of his hair was black. A large jagged scar ran across his nose and part of his under eyes as well.

"Thank you for helping us out back there... why did you surrender to us? Isn't it dangerous to be around us" He asked, looking genuinely concerned but Calira knew that he was on guard, she would be if someone defected to her side?

Taking a moment to consider the options she chose to take off her helmet and possibly condemn herself. As she took off her hair, Calira's shoulder-length purple hair fell down and part of it stuck to the side of her head. As she ran her hand through her hair she chose to ask a question of her own.

"How badly do you want to take down the Galra?"


	2. The Prisoner pt. 1

2- The Prisoner Pt.1

Calira lay on the hard bench of her cell, listening to the soft hum of the barrier separating her from the rest of the ship. After stepping off the ship and asking the Paladins of their desires to kill Zarkon she was brought here. That was several days ago. Since then she had given up as much information as she possibly could, but there was a great deal she could not divulge given their nieve plans as well as her lack of access to the computer systems aboard their ship. Although she was able to easily disengage the barrier, she would need to plug in directly to the ship to alter anything else. All the information that she had given were of the last-known locations of Galra fleets, the armory planets as well as other information that she could remember. The only thing to do now as to see if they actually used her intel. For all, she knew they intended to kill her when the Black Paladin and white-haired woman appeared again. She hadn't been able to catch any names outside of the one called Keith. She could assume from the fight in her ship as well as seeing all of the Paladins together he was the Paladin of the Red Lion.

Letting out a soft sigh she rested her head against her arms and crossed her ankles, the only thing that she could do was wait. She had taken off her armor after the second day, it had grown too hot to bear and she needed relief. The chest plate and vambraces sat on the floor beside her showing just how thick the metal plating was. Not only was it meant for advanced combat but also deep space travel. It was meant to allow her to remain alive in deep space for several months without a ship. Now as she lay on the hard surface of her cell she allowed only her torso to be seen without armor, the protective black shirt underneath wrinkled and creased from continual wear, the only thing that gave away a small hint of the honed muscles she had underneath.

She had spent most of her existence in the Universe honing her skills, training for hours on end with swords, guns, and with her bare hands. Her mind by learning how to code, de-code, hack and destroy all computer systems, be it Galra or otherwise. She held quite a history within her that no one knew about, not even Lotor knew. What she did on her own was her business, he did not need to know who she was or what she was either. All he needed to know was that she was a freak, a half-breed that the Galra would no longer train after she had mastered every form of combat that the Galra Academy taught. That was when she was given her last assignment, one that she had been following for several thousand years.

Since Calira had nothing else to do, it was best to unload her thoughts and make sure she was able to fully organize her thoughts. Before long she heard the sound of the lift being used. As she looked to her left, she was able to see that two figures were coming down the lift tube from somewhere above this secluded chamber. Calira sat up to give whomever this was her full attention, not wanting to give the Paladin's any reason to doubt her. Granted she hadn't fully figured out her plan after escaping Lotor's ship, but she still did not want to make any bad impressions with them. As she sat up she carefully tugged down the sleeves of her black shirt, the fabric clinging to her body like normal to keep her warm and protect her arms and neck, wanting to hide the small bracelets on her wrists that allowed her access to her personal computer at any time.

She had played around with the barrier for a while but chose to leave it alone before anyone grew suspicious. Once the lift stopped at the bottom, Calira looked up to see it was the Black Paladin again but this time he was with someone else. A small brown haired girl with large glasses over her eyes, from where Calira was she saw that she chose to dress like a boy. A strange choice but she chose not to comment on the girl's choice of clothing, she wasn't exactly the pinnacle of modern Galran fashion. As they approached, she showed no sign of fear, no emotion what so ever. Her short, deep purple hair covered the right half of Calira's face, allowing her a small amount of anonymity. Although it wasn't much it was enough to give her some semblance of comfort being here in front fo two Paladins.

"It seems the information you gave us checks out, except for the programs you gave us." Calira looked to the Black Paladin first before smirking to herself.

"It's triple encrypted, extra security to top-secret maps of the Universe. One that only a select few have the chance to see." She said as she looked at her battle-worn hands.

"A three-layer encryption hasn't been created, if so then it crashes my computer each time I try to work on it." The small one said as she pushed her glasses up her nose.

Calira stood and looked at them seriously. "I created it, its something that makes me extremely valuable to the Galra. I was able to figure out how to triple encrypt the computers for select commanders, and outposts. If it is forcing a shut down of your computers then they are out of date and can not handle the processing speed. A simple re-wire and connector bit to the mainframe should afford you time and luxury to de-code it."

The small one seemed quite impressed and in awe, as she looked up to Calira, this made her feel slightly uncomfortable as she had always been someone to fear. She was never admired in any way so to be seen in that light was very strange to her. The Black Paladin sighed before looking at Calira seriously.

"How can we be sure that none of this is a trap? You said that you were a high ranking General for the Galra, why should we trust you?" He asked, sounding genuinely concerned about putting his trust in her, and for good reason.

Calira shifted her weight slightly and put her arms behind her back, showing no malicious intent what so ever.

"With all due respect, I surrendered to you. I gave up my position, and my power to ally myself with Voltron. If it were a trap then this ship would have already come under heavy fire from Zarkon's main hub, but given the fact that the ship hasn't made a wormhole jump during my time here I'm going to assume that it took a beating during a fight _WITH_ the hub." She paused briefly as she could tell that what she said was the truth.

"I gave you what I could divulge to you at this time, other information that I could give you is... sensitive in nature given that you are planning a fight with Zarkon. Should I give you that information it may interfere with your ability to form a plan to bring the central headquarters down."

She watched as the Black Paladin and the young girl both weighed their options. Calira had shown no malicious intent since being here, she wasn't someone that they had previously had trouble with and she had valuable information that would be useful in the future. Calira sighed and sat back down on her bench as she carefully planned her next move. To gain their trust, or at least the Paladin's trust, she would need to give them something more. Something that would greatly help them.

"I can tell you that I know of at least three members of the Blade of Marmora that are sending information out from within the main headquarters. Seeing as how I've given you top-secret locations and information, they may have already changed the access codes to the computers so I can not tell you who or what they are sending. However, if it is possible... I wish to help you bring down the Galra at all costs. Even if it means that I die in the process. My intentions are clear, I wish to see the Galra empire fall and I have chosen to ally myself with Voltron to help you in your fight."

Calira watched as the Black Paladin carefully weighed his options before looking at the girl beside him looking conflicted. "Allura and Coran won't like this..."

As he sighed the barrier came down and allowed Calria to walk free. She looked at them both slightly confused as she knew that she hadn't gained their trust. The young woman adjusted her glasses again as she looked at her seriously. "I'm Pidge if you can help me update the processors on the ship you can stay. Maybe even show me how to triple code?"

Calira sat there completely stunned, she was apart of the race that had destroyed countless worlds, killed millions of innocent people and here this Paladin called Pidge was easily trusting her because of her ability to virtually destroy a ship with the stroke of her finger. Calira looked at the Black Paladin in shock.

"Is she serious?"

Pidge rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in annoyance. "Just because I'm being nice doesn't mean that I trust you. I just want your help to bring the ship up to speed."

Calira held her hands up as if to show she meant no harm, slowly standing to try and make a truce with them. "I will do my utmost to help the Paladins of Voltron."

With a soft sigh, she leaned down to pick up her armor but was stopped by the Black Paladin. He came over and picked it up for her and held it over his shoulder without any problem.

"I'll take care of it. I'm Shiro by the way." He held his right hand out to her and she immediately noticed the Galra tech that served as his arm.

He must have been injured and had it replaced, or better yet he could have had it taken by force and replaced by Galra tech. With little hesitation, Calira shook his hand by grabbing his forearm and nodding her head. She had heard of a strange champion that fought in the Gladiator games for Zarkon who had a cybernetic arm, but she did not know that it was the Paladin of the Black Lion. Clearly, the Paladins held much more fascinating traits to them than simply piloting the universe's most powerful weapon. That made her wonder what the remaining Paladins were like, were they just as accepting of her as the Pidge woman or guarded and trusting like Shiro? Calira didn't know how to feel about the two Paladins as she had expected them to keep her imprisoned until they formed a plan on what to do with her. Kill her, torture her? All things that the Galra would do if someone had been taken in by them, but then again... the Paladins weren't Galra. They appeared to be human, or at least another race outside of human if there were any here.

Pidge showed Calira up to the main control room of the ship. At that moment there wasn't anyone there as they were busy working on the Teleduv and getting it back up and running. Calira paused at the door to look around and was amazed by what she saw there, the control room of the ship was much larger than what she was used to. There were separate seats for each of the five paladins to control their own respective turrets that connected to the castle should they need it. As well as a short pedestal where someone would control the ship all together with an assistant in front. This set up was one that Calira hadn't seen in over ten thousand years. Before she joined Pidge at her station where she had already begun looking through coding for the ship, she chose to ask a question.

"Is this ship Altean?"

Pidge turned and looked at the pale Galra solder and was slightly surprised that she was able to tell that without even meeting Coran or Allura. "It is. Is that going to be an issue?"

Calira frowned and went over to look at the screen that the woman had pulled up, wanting to find out if she was actually able to work with the older system. "It is, Altean technology is very touchy when trying to upgrade more than one system at a time. If you wish to have an entire overhaul of the system, then it would possibly fry the computers altogether and leave you stranded in the cosmos. I personally haven't seen a working Altean ship like this in deca-phebes. What have you already upgraded on the ship thus far?"

Pidge seemed put off by what Calira said and sank down in her seat as she showed the former soldier what improvements she had made to the Castle of Lions. "Overall the only patch I've been able to put on the training deck to override technical malfunctions, and an adding in a better tracking system with an algorithm from the information you gave us about last known areas of Galra fleets and our most recent attacks from others as well."

As she speaks Calria looks over the data as it scrolls on the screen, easily keeping up and finding that the woman had encrypted and coded the programs flawlessly, almost like she had been doing this for a considerable amount of time.

"I could add a patch in t strengthen your particle barrier since it appears to be functioning at only 85% capacity and going up against stronger fighters would prove to become an issue. Also adding in more areas that are under control of the empire would be another choice should you wish to add onto the algorithm, of course, color coding between the actual locations and last known areas of the fleet because we aren't animals." Calira commented as she looked through the longer strands of code.

As she stood back up and looked down at the young woman she felt out of place as she looked at Calira with a look of awe. What was wrong with these people? This is what she did on a daily basis under Lotor. Scan the ship for bugs, upgrade the defenses, modify the thrusters. She was essentially the technological genius and one of the hardest hitters in terms of force when it came to a fight. Calira took a small step over to put some distance between her and the young woman, not sure what exactly she had said that made her happy like that. She cleared her throat before gesturing to the screens in front of Pidge.

"Perhaps if you boosted the output of your algorithm you'd be able to find a way to track and locate the main Hub. Better yet you could even use the expanded scanning system to sort out the eldest distress signals versus newer ones." She leaned over the back of Pidge's seat to point out the areas that could be altered without damaging too much of the ship. "Perhaps you could-"

Her words were cut off as someone entered the room, yelling about a Teleduv. Their voice was extremely loud and piercing to Calira's ears, even with being around lethal weaponry her entire life this person's voice was still able to cause her to feel the beginnings of a migraine.

"I told you, Kaltinecker will be just fine down there. All we need to do is find some food for him on the next planet we're on and boom, we've got ourselves a pasture for him!"

Calira frowned and slowly stood up to see who exactly this person was, and why they had a Kaltinecker aborad the ship. Standing int he open doorway were three other beings. One standing nearly equal in height to her, with short black hair and an orange band across his head. His clothing looked like that of a mechanic and it appeared as though he had been working on something before entering the room. The one that had been talking stood beside him and looked at Calira in shock, almost as though he had never seen a Galra soldier before. His hair was cut very close to his head and he appeared to be wearing more comfortable clothing. Following up the group was another boy with long black hair that hung in his eyes, but what she noticed immediately about him was that he did not carry himself like the other two.

He seemed more reserved and less inclined to stand out, but there was something about him that made Calira feel uneasy. Almost as though she could sense that he wasn't quite human, that there was something different about him. She couldn't manage to put her finger on it but there was something not quite right about him. Before she could consider that any further another being pushed past this group to enter the bridge. Her white hair and facial markings gave away the fact that she was Altean, giving Calira insight as to who was controlling the ship.

"Who gave you access to the command center?" She angrily asked as she walked across the room to stand in front of Calira.

She simply gestured to the young woman behind her as she happily typed away at her screen. "I was brought here by this young woman. I was under the assumption that she needed my assistance to upgrade your ship."

"We don't need your upgrades, and you need to leave now." It was clear that the Altean woman standing before her wasn't fond of her, but knowing that made no difference to Calira.

Hundreds of people across the universe didn't like her, it was nothing new to her. Just her mere presence caused people to scatter just because she was Galra, not because she was a lethal fighter nor was it because she was a General. But simply because she had light purple skin, and purple hair, marking her as Galra. No one bothered to know her past, nor did they care. All they knew was that she belonged to the race that had conquered most of the universe and spread violence no matter where they went. She sighed slightly in annoyance before looking to the group still standing at the door, almost as though they were shocked that she stood in the main control room of the ship.

"I'm assuming you agree with her sentiment and feel that I may take my leave?"

The boy with the orange band on his head was the first to speak up but he didn't sound confident in his words. "N-no. No! You surrendered to us, maybe you could help us fight against your own kind?"

"But with all the information shes already given us wouldn't they already be on high alert?" The long-haired one spoke up as they all began to form a half-circle around Calira.

She sighed and crossed her arms. "Yes, they would be on high alert if I was coming from Central Command, but I wasn't. I was exiled several thousand years ago and given an assignment that lasted that amount of time. Although the codes and access information may have changed, they won't be looking for me any time soon. The information that I've given you so far was minor compared to what others might be able to give you if they had connections to Central Command. Warlords, Galra battleship locations, the locations for weaponry development, things that would tip off the Galra forces that someone was giving you access to highly classified information."

"And you think we are going to easily trust you because you gave us the easiest information possible?" The Altean asked, clearly getting more and more agitated with each word that came from Calira's mouth.

"If it meant the continuation of Voltron and a symbol of peace to the Universe then yes."

"Enough!"

Everyone's attention turned to the commanding voice that came from the door entering into the room. Standing at the door was Shiro and he didn't look at all pleased with the Princess being so negative towards their new ally.

"We need to stop, Calira turned herself over to us and has given us information that will help us in the long run. No matter how small that information is, shes an ally I'm willing to trust. Without her help who knows how badly the Castle would have been harmed on Taujeer." He crossed the room and stood beside Calira and the Altean woman. "We have our mission already ahead of us. I suggest we move on and take her advice when she gives it. She's the only Galra General to surrender to us and I'm not about to let her sacrifice go to the wayside."

Calira frowned slightly as his words hit her. The Paladin of the Black Lion didn't know a thing about her, didn't know who she served for the past ten thousand years, nor did he know about her life. Yet he was willing and ready to put his trust in her because she surrendered to Voltron because she was willing to sacrifice everything to help establish peace across the Universe. That kind of trust and kindness wasn't given freely and she knew that. If she wasn't totally honest with them at all times theres no telling what might happen.

"We're going to the Blade of Marmora's headquarters, and we may need her help. So I suggest you leave her alone and let her help Pidge."

Calira looked around the room and saw that the others were in agreement with Shiro, all except for the Altean woman. She still appeared very upset and angered over the fact that she dared show her face to her. There was no doubt that something had happened to the woman that would cause her to hate the Galra so badly. But there was also no doubt that if that were the case, the woman may never come to trust her and could put Calira in a difficult place. They hadn't met Lotor yet, and there was no indication that they even knew he existed. Should they come across him in the future, and Calira was found aboard he could completely destroy her. She betrayed him in favor of Voltron, the very instrument that he was trying to gain for his master plan. She knew that from this point on she would need to help them avoid the possibility of ever coming across him. Or else, the Universe may never be at peace.


End file.
